*I do not own Harry Potter.*

**Well, here we are, more than a year later and I'm finally getting around to updating this fanfic! Sorry, dear readers, that it's been so long. I'd like to make excuses, but the real deal is that I have a bad habit of prioritizing everything else in my life over writing. I'm trying really hard to be better about this – so I'm making the public (as public as this announcement could be!) promise to update with a new chapter each week until it's finished. I don't know yet where the story is going to take me, so I don't know how long that'll take, but I'm dedicating my time to it!

I've also gone back in and made the changes from readers' comments before – I didn't ignore you! It just took me awhile to figure out how to make edits on this platform.

My big ask from you, my dear readers, is to let me know what you like, what you don't, what you'd change, what you want more of – in other words, interact with me! This is the only forum that I consistently get feedback for my writing (most of my writing is done outside of FanFiction, in the confines of my own brain/computer) and it is a tremendous motivation to any writer to receive reinforcement that she should keep writing. Thank you!**

***This post brought to you by H-E-B sushi (No Store Does More!TM), Arizona Green Tea with Ginseng and Honey, and "Mind Over Matter" by Anthony Ramos. Now that you know some things about me – feel free to make your generalizations! – what about you? What are you consuming right now?***

Chapter 12

I've never felt evidence for my own TikTok-diagnosis of ADHD more clearly than this moment. My brain is screaming at me to touch her, kiss her, dive in, but my heart is begging me to take it slow. And since I've come to the very recent realization that my heart is where most of what makes me….me, resides, I'm trying really hard to listen.

But Merlin it's tough.

She is so soft and smells so good and the sounds she makes when I bite her lower lip are insane. And this is Hermione Granger! Smartest witch of her age! The rush of adrenaline (both fear and lust based, to be honest) is almost overwhelming.

As soon as our lips touch, he brings his left hand up to cup my face, ever so gently and tenderly. There's a tension, though, in his fingertips. He's tempering his reaction to this, and I briefly wonder why before I'm swept under by the feeling of his mouth on mine. Just the right amount of stubble. Skillful but respectful use of tongue.

Merlin, Hermione. You're not writing a fucking report here. Get out of your own head.

I can't help it. I have to.

I move my hand slowly away from her neck, where I've been gripping (but not gripping!) just a little (yes, just a little), trailing down side boob territory and confirming both the existence of that beautiful mole with another of my five senses and the disappearance of a bra at some point in the evening (was she casting wandless spells?...let's put a pin in that Malfoy, don't get ahead of yourself). From the weight and look of them, her pajamas are barely in existence. I can feel almost everything. She pulls away to look at me as I head to my original target.

God, that ass. It is literally perfect.

Now there's real tension in those hands, and they mean business. He grabs me and hauls me onto his lap, picking me up slightly while I arrange my hips as I straddle him. The combination of his sweatpants and my flimsy pajama pants (giving myself a mental high five for making these flannels and white tank top 50% less thick a few minutes ago, along with the bracium evanesco) make for a jolt of intensity when we get it right, and I look into his eyes. So much like the stone of a small village cottage, more blue and green warm grey than silver and purple cool grey. How had I never noticed?

Jesus, Granger, you've never been this close to him before, obviously. And then his eyes crinkle up in a smile like he knows what I'm thinking and I'm undone.

I'm gripping her ass as she's moving - painfully, slowly - on top of me. Suddenly, it's like she forgets to be in control and she throws her head back, only to gasp and sit up when my lips land, inevitably, on her nipple, still barely contained by her shirt. But in the very next moment, I hear a sound I've never heard before (ahem) in this…setting – it sounds like chimes.

Holy shit fuck. I just catch myself from saying it aloud. Instead, I grab his hair and physically pull him away from me. The depth of color in his eyes makes me switch gears again…does he have the same range in other parts of himself? Tender and deep, but also controlling and dark? No time - something to consider later.

My voice comes out whispered insistence. "Malfoy, that's my floo chime. I don't know who's coming, but whoever it is, they can't know you're here. We've got five minutes before they arrive."

FINAL QUESTION FOR MY READERS: Do you like the back and forth between narrators? And the use of first person here instead of third in previous chapters? I'm kind of digging it!